It’s Time to Reinvent Events

There is tremendous value in micro events that elevate the presenting organization’s brand above the noise, create growth opportunities for attendees, and generate amazing word of mouth. And yet, I see very few of these short, focused events. Event planners are still married to a last-century model. With no shortage of events we all could attend, it is time for outdated models to change.

I speak from experience. I will end this year having delivered 62 global speaking engagements. I am blessed to have presented from Cancun to Prague, from L.A. to Istanbul. Even with an estimated 200 days-a-year on the road schedule, three to four times a year, I attend what I hope will be “1%” events for me. (I call them that because if you improve by 1% a day, in 70 days you will be twice as good.) I go because I’m a life-long learner and deeply believe that the day I stop learning and growing is the day that I’m no longer relevant to my relationships.

Stop seeking safety in numbers

My “1%” is not going to come from hanging out with the same group of people, attending the same industry events, listening to the same talking heads espouse groupthink mentality. To break out of that mind-numbing routine, I’ve attended Renaissance Weekend, the Fast Company Innovation Summit, the Milken Institute, and other TED-like events. In 2015, I attended the ICONIC event in Washington DC, presented by Inc. Magazine and CNBC. Their promise: “to bring together some of the country’s most influential entrepreneurs to talk about innovation, inspiration, and becoming ICONIC.”

I’m always curious about what goes into selecting the speakers for these events. How much of it is driven by the “celebrity factor” and how much is about delivering practical, pragmatic and actionable insights? Kudos to Inc. and CNBC for partnering to put on this event, but sorry folks: you did what too many event planners do: you threw a whole lot at the wall to see what sticks. For me, the results were mixed. Out of 15 presenters, 3 were worth hearing. Out of 50 people I met, 5 who showed strategic relationship potential. That’s not a great score. Event organizers, your business model may call for large-scale events, but it is very difficult to create any kind of intimacy or transformation when there are 600, 700, 800 people in the room, listening to a stage full of talking heads.

The micro event model offers more

I’m coaching my clients, especially the associations and professional societies, to consider the enormous value of micro events. Imagine the value created when you segment your audience by their needs, really cater to that which they need today, and that which you anticipate they will need in the future. Calculate the value delivery when you ensure that the content goes beyond the theoretical to what I call “the elevator ride” — the application and implementation that lifts us up and moves us forward. Can you envision a micro event that in essence packages that “1%” for a specific niche and hands it to them in a form they can internalize, analyze, and immediately act on?

I learned the SMART acronym from Bruce Kasanoff, one of my former CEOs: Segment, Modularize, Anticipate, Reward, and Transform. Applying the SMART analogy to a conference leads me to ask:

• How do I segment my potential audience, based not on their capabilities, but on what they need?
• How do modularize based on those needs? Could I create a shorter, more hands-on session?
• How do I anticipate what those audience members need next?
• How do I reward them for win-win behavior?
• And finally, how do I transform their lives? The ICONIC event left me saying, “well, it was okay,” versus leaving with a handful of those “1%” ideas, saying “I walked away with so much value.”

Assessing ICONIC

Putting on a ‘SMART’ event is NOT what the planners of 2015 ICONIC did. You can almost see their thinking: “Let’s get some celebrities. Kevin O’Leary from the hit ABC show Shark Tank — check! Marcus Lemonis from CNBC’s The Profit — check! Kenneth Cole, the apparel designer — check!” Yes, the celebrities increase awareness and attendance. But in my view, it was the practical, pragmatic speakers who were really interesting and engaging. Instead of bringing in Kevin O’Leary to talk about the Shark Tank show, could Inc. have created an actual Shark Tank where O’Leary and a couple of others listen to business ideas and give feedback? That would have been much more interesting than a talking head on the stage.

Thumbs up to the planners for inviting Bert Jacobs, founder of the “Life is Good” brand, who talked about building a cultural purpose. I got great insights from Eric Ryan, one of the co-founders of Method, who impressed me with his pragmatism. Kevin Plank, the CEO of Under Armour, demonstrated the grit it took to grow a simple idea of not wanting to wear sweaty cotton t-shirts as a college football player into what is now a $4 billion global company. By the way, a historic theater for your venue is fantastic, but wouldn’t actually going to Under Armour be better? They’re based in Baltimore, why not host this event there?

Bottom line: The planners of the 2015 ICONIC event are still operating on the old model of “cast a wide net” and “get butts in seats.” It was too big, too long, and too much about star power, not enough about making me better off for my investment. They clearly don’t understand my priorities, even though I’ve been a long time subscriber of their magazine! This is the norm in event management, but that doesn’t make it a best practice. ICONIC was fine, but “fine” is not good enough. I spent $500 to get in, and more than that to get there. Did I walk away with value? Yes. Was it amazing? Not really. Would I go back or recommend it to others? Probably not.

So what’s the answer?

To create a dramatically bigger impact with your next event, go small and SMART. Focus on a segment of your audience; you simply cannot create an event that truly caters to everybody. I’ve tried it myself; for two years I produced the Author Summit. It is a near-impossible task to make everybody happy AND consistently deliver great content.

Hosting the successful events of the future will require you to segment, modularize, anticipate, reward and transform. Not only will your attendees get more from these events, but they’ll tell everybody they know about it — you just elevated your brand above anything else that shows up on their radar. You have just taken “fine” to “exceptional.” That is the fundamental difference between defending the status quo, putting on yet another event because everybody’s doing it, and dramatically separating your brand from the tremendous noise in the market.

Let’s imagine what a micro event would look like. The economic model would feature very focused expenditure of resources by both the hosting and attending organizations. Audiences would be very small and targeted. Instead of aiming to get 3,000 or 30,000 people to show up, what if we concentrated on getting the RIGHT 50 people there? I believe that not only they would they be willing to pay a significant premium, but the army of influencers you are going to activate will be a significant differentiator. You will create a culture of exceptionalism that is destined to raise your brand far above “fine.”

Nour Takeaways

1. Attending the 2015 Inc. ICONIC event leads me to observe that there is tremendous value in micro events featuring content tailored to the needs of a smaller target market.
2. Build micro events around the SMART model: Segment, modularize, anticipate, reward and transform.
3. Offering exceptional experiences targeted to the needs of a carefully chosen few will activate influencers excited to share positive buzz.

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David Nour has spent the past two decades being a student of business relationships. In the process, he has developed Relationship Economics® — the art and science of becoming more intentional and strategic in the relationships one chooses to invest in. In a global economy that is becoming increasingly disconnected, The Nour Group, Inc. has worked with clients such as Hilton, ThyssenKrupp, Disney, KPMG and over 100 other marquee organizations in driving profitable growth through unique return on their strategic relationships. Nour has pioneered the phenomenon that relationships are the greatest off balance sheet asset any organizations possess, large and small, public and private. He is the author of nine books translated in eight languages, including the best selling Relationship Economics — Revised (Wiley), ConnectAbility (McGraw-Hill), The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Raising Capital (Praeger), Return on Impact (ASAE), and the forthcoming CO-CREATE: How Your Business Will Profit from Innovative and Strategic Collaboration (St. Martin’s Press), an essential guide showing C-level leaders how to optimize relationships, create market gravity, and greatly increase revenue. Learn more at www.NourGroup.com.